Friendship PCS - Chamberlain

[Anonymous]

Anyone know anything about this school for early elementary? Just got an offer off the waitlist. I checked their PARCC scores, and they are decent (not all that different from some of the EOTP DCPS that people like.)

[Anonymous]

I would only consider it for pk 3 or 4, and only if I were absolutely desperate for free daycare.

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely not for my child. I am a teacher and am acquainted with some of the teaching staff there. Absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

Meridian was highly rated until it was determined that they cheated. It happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

OP here. It's hard to sort out the rumors/prejudices from facts. If you look at their PARCC scores they really did quite well. I have a hard time believing it's terrible.

For comparison (3rd grade classes):

Chamberlain Math: 38% meet/exceed; 1% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor Math: 48% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury Math: 50% meet/exceed; 13% did not meet

Chamberlain English: 23% meet/exceed; 21% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor English: 46% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury English: 50% meet/exceed; 17% did not meet

Considering that Chamberlain likely has a much larger % of at risk kids, looks like they are doing something right. (And what's up with Maury letting so many kids fail BTW?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

Meridian was highly rated until it was determined that they cheated. It happens.

Isn't cheating on PARCC much harder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

OP here. It's hard to sort out the rumors/prejudices from facts. If you look at their PARCC scores they really did quite well. I have a hard time believing it's terrible.

For comparison (3rd grade classes):

Chamberlain Math: 38% meet/exceed; 1% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor Math: 48% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury Math: 50% meet/exceed; 13% did not meet

Chamberlain English: 23% meet/exceed; 21% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor English: 46% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury English: 50% meet/exceed; 17% did not meet

Considering that Chamberlain likely has a much larger % of at risk kids, looks like they are doing something right. (And what's up with Maury letting so many kids fail BTW?)

So...you only care about how well prepared your child will be to pass standardized tests? Is that really your whole basis for selecting a school?

If you are just going to write back any negative things you hear about the school as rumors/prejudices, well then what was the point of this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

OP here. It's hard to sort out the rumors/prejudices from facts. If you look at their PARCC scores they really did quite well. I have a hard time believing it's terrible.

For comparison (3rd grade classes):

Chamberlain Math: 38% meet/exceed; 1% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor Math: 48% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury Math: 50% meet/exceed; 13% did not meet

Chamberlain English: 23% meet/exceed; 21% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor English: 46% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury English: 50% meet/exceed; 17% did not meet

Considering that Chamberlain likely has a much larger % of at risk kids, looks like they are doing something right. (And what's up with Maury letting so many kids fail BTW?)

So...you only care about how well prepared your child will be to pass standardized tests? Is that really your whole basis for selecting a school?

If you are just going to write back any negative things you hear about the school as rumors/prejudices, well then what was the point of this thread?

Meh. OP is digging deeper and "talking" through it. No ones response gave anything specific to go on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow that's a tier 1 charter too

OP here. It's hard to sort out the rumors/prejudices from facts. If you look at their PARCC scores they really did quite well. I have a hard time believing it's terrible.

For comparison (3rd grade classes):

Chamberlain Math: 38% meet/exceed; 1% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor Math: 48% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury Math: 50% meet/exceed; 13% did not meet

Chamberlain English: 23% meet/exceed; 21% did not meet
Ludlow Taylor English: 46% meet/exceed; 2% did not meet
Maury English: 50% meet/exceed; 17% did not meet

Considering that Chamberlain likely has a much larger % of at risk kids, looks like they are doing something right. (And what's up with Maury letting so many kids fail BTW?)

So...you only care about how well prepared your child will be to pass standardized tests? Is that really your whole basis for selecting a school?

If you are just going to write back any negative things you hear about the school as rumors/prejudices, well then what was the point of this thread?

Huh? People cite test scores all the time here, and seem to have some pretty knee-jerk beliefs about some schools. I'm posting the scores because I think it's noteworthy that Chamberlain clearly has a very strong cohort of students, as evinced by their scores, and I'm wondering if anyone has *actual* knowledge about the school.

[Anonymous]

I used to teach at Friendship Woodridge. It was absolutely awful. Way too much work piled on the backs of teachers who either worked way too hard (me) or else slacked off in ridiculous ways (1 teacher watched an hour of soaps every afternoon while making the kids sit with their heads down -- these were kids well beyond napping age). Lots of yelling and rigid discipline (which didn't work).

I barely made it through the year, a few of my colleagues didn't, and well more than half of the teachers left after that year as well. The ones who stayed were relatives of the principal. The principal came into my classroom and yelled at me in front of the students for having the gall to comment on how hard it had been coming back from Winter Break to a room that had been completely torn apart to make room for sharing it, without being alerted to that so I could arrive early and fix it.

Woodridge has about half the # of kids now even though they expanded up and down by 2-3 grades and expanded the building. The class sizes were as big as 31 kids in 5th grade and never under 22 and that was for a "small" group. Around 75% of the students needed massive mental health/social worker intervention with parents in jail, on drugs, missing, etc. etc. It was heart-wrenching and very difficult to deal with even as a grown adult.

Chamberlain's school hours are 7:45-4. They also have a longer school year. There is a massive focus on academics, especially to prepare for tests. This is quite different from a whole child approach such as at Maury and Ludlow-Taylor. On their website it repeatedly states that their goal is high academic achievement. Not developing the whole child, but high academic achievement. This kind of focus is not necessarily a bad thing, but not what most middle class families are looking for for their children.

I wouldn't be as declarative as some posters in terms of not going there for PK, but I respect that they may well know things that I don't know. I would definitely state that only PK would be OK for me. It does state on the website that the PK program is more exploratory and less academic in nature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be as declarative as some posters in terms of not going there for PK, but I respect that they may well know things that I don't know. I would definitely state that only PK would be OK for me. It does state on the website that the PK program is more exploratory and less academic in nature.

I won't be giving specifics on an anonymous message board, but yes I do have first-hand knowledge about this issue and no, under no circumstances would I send my own children to chamberlain for prek.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to teach at Friendship Woodridge. It was absolutely awful. Way too much work piled on the backs of teachers who either worked way too hard (me) or else slacked off in ridiculous ways (1 teacher watched an hour of soaps every afternoon while making the kids sit with their heads down -- these were kids well beyond napping age). Lots of yelling and rigid discipline (which didn't work).

I barely made it through the year, a few of my colleagues didn't, and well more than half of the teachers left after that year as well. The ones who stayed were relatives of the principal. The principal came into my classroom and yelled at me in front of the students for having the gall to comment on how hard it had been coming back from Winter Break to a room that had been completely torn apart to make room for sharing it, without being alerted to that so I could arrive early and fix it.

Woodridge has about half the # of kids now even though they expanded up and down by 2-3 grades and expanded the building. The class sizes were as big as 31 kids in 5th grade and never under 22 and that was for a "small" group. Around 75% of the students needed massive mental health/social worker intervention with parents in jail, on drugs, missing, etc. etc. It was heart-wrenching and very difficult to deal with even as a grown adult.

Chamberlain's school hours are 7:45-4. They also have a longer school year. There is a massive focus on academics, especially to prepare for tests. This is quite different from a whole child approach such as at Maury and Ludlow-Taylor. On their website it repeatedly states that their goal is high academic achievement. Not developing the whole child, but high academic achievement. This kind of focus is not necessarily a bad thing, but not what most middle class families are looking for for their children.

I wouldn't be as declarative as some posters in terms of not going there for PK, but I respect that they may well know things that I don't know. I would definitely state that only PK would be OK for me. It does state on the website that the PK program is more exploratory and less academic in nature.

geez - was matched here low on my list. only put it on for proximity purposes. shouldn't have done that....